Jefferson County authorities are blaming the abuse of a hospice drug for a spike in fatal overdoses.

Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said deaths linked to fentanyl have gone from two in 2013 to 25 last year.

In fact, he claims there were 27 fentanyl-related overdose deaths during the first three months of this year alone.

Sandor Cheka runs the Addiction Prevention Coalition in Homewood.

He says fentanyl is a slow release patch designed to ease pain for hospice patients.

"As hospice is becoming more and more popular people will go in and figure out where the hospices are and take stuff out of their cabinets and whatever or they will go to a hospital and raid the pharmacy at the hospital and that’s where it’s getting into our streets," Cheka said.

Cheka points out abusers either freeze the medicine inside the patches and eat it or mix the drugs with heroin.

"When somebody gets a hold of it and they don’t know what they’re doing it is very lethal. And what we see locally is not only do we have a heroin issue but heroin is starting to be cut with fentanyl and you add to lethal substances together and it is just a recipe for disaster, unfortunately," said Cheka.

So far there have been two deaths in Hoover this year attributed to the two drugs.

"It reaches all demographics: young, old, rich, poor. It’s not just in Hoover, it’s in Mountain Brook, Homewood, Vestavia. We talk to our counterparts in the other departments and it’s just been on a steady rise," Lowe said.

There were 137 heroin drug overdose deaths across Jefferson County in 2014.